The U.S. alleges that S&P knew the housing market was collapsing but delayed downgrading securities for fear that would curb new deals. Justin Baer joins Lunch Break with the latest. Photo: AP.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... he allegedly continued to hundreds of billions of dollars with its CTO staffed by on MPS collateral ... ignoring their own analysts performance projection showing that the ratings ... on the collateral ... would not hold ... the action that we announced today ... marks in importance to fourth in the administration's ongoing efforts to investigate ... as well as to punish the conduct that is believed to contribute to the worst economic crisis ... in recent history ... best Attorney General Eric holder announcing today that the United States is selling standard Nucor's ratings services for misleading investors about mortgage back securities ... welcome to lunch break I'm Kelli Grant and here with the latest in this fast moving stories WSJ Money Investing editor Justin Baer Justin thank you so much for being here thank you ... so we just heard that they're wrapping up his press conference now from a lawsuit announced late last night for the summer the de tails about what this means for ... the process and consumer share show so this is ... a significant step on ... more on ... the ratings firm's really for the process of ... of of prosecuting the financial crisis friends is turning its mentioned ... aam this is the case goes back to ... events that led up to the crisis of ... this and he ... had Dada ... put forth a number of readings on ... bonds tied to mortgages ... the government is arguing that ... they did add a day in Sunday's I'm reading cities to these bonds ... knowing that of course ... the of the underlying assets without hold that they were ... just knowing that it sells like joking about it to win yes songs and video right address ... this is the well it's you've come come to expect with the suits out ... there able to to track down this trove of of emails and in one case ... a ... nod to the performance of ... one analyst who was ... putting the subprime crisis the music and down ... so so yet so the government is is alleging that they ... knew ... that tout these bonds were at work ... we're ... not going to hold up ... in a way that it did to deserve the ratings ... slide ... was Essen P said about that so ... sure so so they've ... they've denied any wrongdoing and they've made it clear that they feel that the ... see that the suit is unnecessary and and and wrong and to come after the week the strategy the government appears to be a ... point here so they're they're fighting ... the illegal strike gainers in the government is using something that dates back to savings and loan cases for the lower bridge told to be able to go after them what exactly is involved there yet so so they're looking excess of the city's for for fraud ... ALM so that the weakness treasure their apply again is is that when it came out of this is a ... crisis ... aam it's ... a way the government thinks it can get around the strong first Amendment protections that ... companies like as he ... argued they choose to fish especially over Ripoll fooling me ... any accusations of fraud is it that they are saying this is just their opinion and ... was entitled to be correct yes ... I know what is the next step now that this lawsuit has been in the US ... we know rings brings be seen again the aam you know that we have a process that ... began last night when when students filed ... aam was to remains the scene is is whether any of the other ... ratings firms ... will be subject to similar complaints ... it's also unclear from a corporate perspective would meet what it means for us and in their parent McGraw Hill ... the company had to support the motion ... is planned to split the company into obvious that this is one of them with ... a price that the child of one half of that ... so there are some questions ... investors really about ... what this means for that process ...